This application claims the priority of German Patent Document 101 35 146.1, filed Jul. 19, 2001, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The present invention relates to a device for changing the relative rotational angle of an internal combustion engine.
There exists a device of the aforementioned class, German Patent Document DE 199 30 711 C1, where the pressure chambers between a cell wheel and a blade wheel are actuated starting from axial lines, designed as boreholes or ring channels. The boreholes are provided in hub segments of the device and the camshaft. The ring channels envelop a shaft of a fastening screw, serving to hold the device on the camshaft.
German Patent Document DE 100 02 512, for which U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/765,398 is a counterpart U.S. application, shows lines, which are connected to pressure chambers of a comparable device and which are formed by means of axial ring channels. The ring channels are formed, on the one hand, by means of an outside of a control sleeve and a borehole in the hub segments of the device and the camshaft and, on the other hand, by means of an inside of this control sleeve and a shaft of an axial fastening screw, which connects the device to the camshaft. The control sleeve is moved into its construction position starting from a side, facing away from a screw head of the fastening screw, and rests in boreholes of the hub segments.
The object of the present invention is to form the lines, which are connected to the pressure chambers and belong to the device, by means of the control sleeve and to optimize the assembly of the control sleeve.
The advantages, targeted primarily with the invention, lie in that the control sleeve and the fastening screw can be installed from one and the same side, a feature that simplifies the assembly itself and support the reliability of the assembly. At the same time the centering mechanisms, which are formed by the radial support legs, are quite suitable for the targeted application and can also be realized easily. The support legs can be attached either directly to the shaft or to the control sleeve. However, it is also conceivable to combine them structurally with an insert sleeve or a jacket sleeve and to make them of plastic. Finally it is possible to prefabricate the control sleeve and the fastening screw as a preassembled module, which is then moved into the defined construction position when the device is connected to the camshaft.
The drawings depict one embodiment of the invention, which is described in detail below.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.